


Sofa Snuggling

by Goldy



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: F/M, Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-15
Updated: 2013-07-15
Packaged: 2017-12-20 05:15:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,240
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/883353
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Goldy/pseuds/Goldy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jackie catches Rose and the Doctor in a strangely intimate position.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sofa Snuggling

“Rose? I’ve finally put your brother down—took four readings of the same book this time—he likes looking at the pictures. I’ve seen enough monsters for a bleeding lifetime, I can tell you that much. Anyway, come and have a cuppa, you haven’t eaten—” _all day_ Jackie finished silently as she rounded the corner and came to a stop.

Rose was fast asleep. She was sprawled across the Doctor’s chest, one of her hands clutching a fistful of his suit. Her other arm had fallen over the edge of the sofa and twitched in time with her soft snores.

The Doctor shook his head and pressed his fingers to his lips. Jackie softened. The two of them together barely fit on the sofa. Still, she knew better than to try and suggest moving someplace where they’d have more room. They’d barely let go of each other since Norway.

Rose snorted in her sleep and pressed her face against the Doctor’s chest. Jackie blinked at the Doctor and he shrugged in reply. She couldn’t blame Rose for being exhausted—her own feet and back were aching. She ambled over to the nearest recliner and sighed softly as she collapsed into it.

She sensed the Doctor’s eyes tracking her movements. She glanced at him and he managed a strained smile as if he half-expected her to slap him at any moment. She hid a smirk and filed that bit of knowledge away for another time.

Her gaze ticked over to her daughter’s sleeping form. Her jaw was slack, her breathing even. She looked… peaceful. Jackie felt a strange ache in her chest. She was used to a Rose that tended to sleep fitfully, waking up at odd hours to work on Torchwood cases or that dimensional cannon. Rose had tried to hide it, but Jackie hadn’t been blind to the dark circles growing under her eyes or the way her smile dimmed even when she was laughing.

Jackie spoke softly. “I’m glad that she’s resting. She’s exhausted.”

The Doctor nodded absently and tucked a lock of hair behind Rose’s ear. “It’s been a long few days.”

“It’s been a long few years,” Jackie corrected. The Doctor glanced over, his eyes questioning. “She spent all her free time working on that thing—that dimensional cannon. She had to fight for it at first. Not part of Torchwood’s mandate, they said. But you know Rose. There’s no stopping her when she sets her mind to something.” Jackie paused. “She’s like her dad that way.”

She saw the realization dawn on him and he looked back down at Rose with an awed expression that tugged at Jackie’s heart. “All that time,” he whispered. “And I just… I gave up.”

“Come on now, don’t say that,” Jackie said. “Rose isn’t a Time Lord. She doesn’t see things like you do. Impossible’s just a word, it’s not a fact. And it gave her a reason again. She got up in the morning and she played with Tony and went to work, and all that time, she went on because she could hope.”

The Doctor frowned as he thought that over; glancing from her to Rose and back again. He never was much good at the emotional stuff, Jackie reckoned.

“These last few years have been hard for her. Even before the universe started ending,” he finally said, as if just realizing it for the first time. “Guess that makes two of us, then.”

That surprised Jackie. It wasn’t that she hadn’t known how the Doctor felt about her daughter—no, _that_ she’d known since the time he’d been all big ears and wore black leather. But this was a man who got in his blue box and left to travel the universe. He could meet anyone and anything, and yet here he was, stuck here on a foreign Earth for Jackie’s daughter.

“And I left her on a beach,” he murmured to himself.

“No,” said Jackie. “You stayed.”

He looked over and caught her gaze. “Yeah.”

They smiled at each other. Jackie even found herself thinking that the Doctor wasn’t quite so alien and abnormal as she’d thought.

Then he sniffed the air and said, “Do you know, I think this universe has a slightly different organic makeup. I can sense it.” He tapped his temple. “Up here. It’s like… take a dusty attic and a mouldy basement—they look nearly the same, but they _feel_ different.”

Jackie blinked. She hadn’t understood a word of that.

The Doctor continued without waiting for a response, “Still, I’m sure I’ll adjust in time.”

“Must be weird, though,” Jackie said. “Being stuck here on Earth like one of us. You’re just a regular bloke now.”

The Doctor looked rather appalled by this insinuation. “Oi! I’m still part-Time Lord.”

“Well, you don’t have a TARDIS now, do you?” Jackie pointed out reasonably. “You’ll have to live in a proper house and get a job and everything. Might even have to start paying taxes.”

He paled and glanced back down at Rose. “I suppose… I hadn’t really thought about it.”

“How does it work, then, you only being half-human?”

“To be honest, I have no idea. This hasn’t exactly ever happened to me before.”

“One-heart, though—is that even safe for you? What if it stops? What if you—I dunno—have a heart attack or something?”

“ _Well_ … I’ll need it re-started, I reckon. Just like any of you lot.”

“Not something alien?” Jackie pressed. “Should we get you checked out? Get x-rays done? Or would they cart you off to some government facility to conduct experiments on you?”

“Jackie, I really don’t know,” said the Doctor, now sounding strained. He rubbed his eyes. “I told you, this is all new to me. Right now I just…”

He trailed off, looking utterly lost. Jackie felt a twinge of sympathy for him. “You’ll be alright. Rose’ll help—and god knows, with you around we’ll be facing alien invasions every 24 hours. It’ll be like nothing’s changed at all.”

He seemed to perk up a little at that. “That’s a fair point.”

Rose stirred and then shifted, eyes fluttering open. “Doctor?”

“Hi there,” he whispered.

She slowly unclenched his suit and began to relax. “You’re still here,” she said fuzzily. “That’s good. I thought… I thought maybe I was dreaming.”

He bent his head down close to hers. “I’m here, Rose. It’s all right. Your mum and I were just catching up.”

“You and my mum were catching up? Right, now I _know_ I’m dreaming.”

One of the Doctor’s hands tangled in Rose’s hair. “She was just telling me that you need rest. Go on, go back to sleep.”

Rose nodded and closed her eyes, but then in a sleepy voice said, “We’ve got to talk. A lot.”

“I know. We will.”

“‘Kay, good,” she said firmly. And then promptly fell asleep again. Jackie didn’t relax until the sounds of her snores filled the room.

Jackie watched them quietly, suddenly feeling like she was intruding. She pushed herself to her feet and resolved to give them some space to work things out.

She couldn’t stop herself from ruffling the Doctor’s hair on the way by. He gave her a bemused look. “I’m glad that you’re here with her,” Jackie said. “It’s good to see her resting again. Really sleeping.”

The Doctor’s eyes widened in surprise, but then he relaxed and smiled. “Thanks, Jackie.”


End file.
